Cooks River Fun Run

Warm Up
Take the time to warm up your muscles and joints, especially now it’s cooler. This will help minimize injury. Start with a walk, to brisk walk and ease into a light jog for a good 5 minutes. If you’re an asthmatic take longer period to warm up, especially in the cold.

Cool down after your runs and stretch. Ease back to a light jog, to a walk for a good 5 minutes and then stretch. Remember your quads, hamstrings, calf muscles, glutes and hip flexors. Practicing good warm up, cool downs and stretching techniques will help aid your recovery and minimize soreness, fatigue and injury.

Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)
You will notice some of the runs will have a RPE, meaning “Rate of Perceived Exertion”. It is a scale to rate intensity for your training with 1 being the easiest and 10 being the hardest. Use this as an indication for how hard your session should be.

Cross Training
Only do this session if you’re not fatigued from the week and want to do a little more. All times are approximates for cross training, so if you’d like to do a 45 min yoga class, go for it. The idea is active recovery and NOT to get your heart rate up high.

Long Run
There are many purposes and benefits to your long run no matter what distance you’re training for. It helps your muscles and joints to adapt to longer distances, increases your endurance and strengthens your cardiovascular system. Long runs help you become a more efficient runner and are key to any running program. This run is your most important run of the week. If you have to miss a run during one week, then pick this one last.

Long runs should be done at a consistent pace. It’s not an all-out effort, but rather a slow easy-medium effort. You should be able to talk during your long run. You can’t sing, but you can talk!

REST
Rest days are equally as important as training days. It allows your muscles to rebuild, recover and refresh. This means you will be able to train harder is your sessions.

Take a rest day after your long run every week, give those muscles and joints time to recover. If you’re still sore after a day, then take 2 days off. A rest day before (unless it’s a cross training session) and after your long run is preferable.

Listening to your body is imperative to the best preparation possible. We’re all different so do what you need to do for you. This means that if you’re not feeling well, then rest that day. Don’t push through sickness, you’re likely to get worse and need more time off.

Race Day Congratulations on making it to the starting line. Here are a few tips:

• • Wear clothes that you’ve trained in to avoid any chafing issues or discomfort.

• • Fuel your body and eat breakfast approx. 1:30 hours earlier. This varies depending on the individual and you should practice eating times and types of food before event day to help eliminate any stomach discomfort. Some race day options can be- peanut butter, banana on toast or oats. Keep it pretty simple and remember experiment with this before your runs.
  • Try not to go out too fast. It’s easy to be caught up in race day energy and go too hard. Pace yourself wisely. Find a pace that is challenging, but maintainable for the duration of the run. If you have any extra energy towards the end, then go for it. Look for a consistent effort or a negative split (faster) pace at the end.